(Abridged) We determine the quantitative morphology and star formation
properties of galaxies in six nearby X-ray detected, poor groups using
multi-object spectroscopy and wide-field R imaging. We measure structural
parameters for each galaxy by fitting a PSF-convolved, two component model to
their surface brightness profiles. To compare directly the samples, we fade,
smooth, and rebin each galaxy image so that we effectively observe each galaxy
at the same redshift (9000 km/s) and physical resolution (0.87h^(-1) kpc). We
compare results for the groups to a sample of field galaxies. We find that: 1)
Galaxies spanning a wide range in morphological type and luminosity are
well-fit by a de Vaucouleurs bulge with exponential disk profile. 2)
Morphologically classifying these nearby group galaxies by their bulge fraction
(B/T) is fairly robust on average, even when their redshift has increased by up
to a factor of four and the effective resolution of the images is degraded by
up to a factor of five. 3) The fraction of bulge-dominated systems in these
groups is higher than in the field (~50% vs. ~20%). 4) The fraction of
bulge-dominated systems in groups decreases with increasing radius, similar to
the morphology-radius (~density) relation observed in galaxy clusters. 5)
Current star formation in group galaxies is correlated with significant
morphological asymmetry for disk-dominated systems (B/T<0.4). 6) The group
galaxies that are most disk-dominated (B/T<0.2) are less star forming and
asymmetric on average than their counterparts in the field.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (26 pages + 12
figures); Figs 1 & 2 also available at
http://www.ucolick.org/~vy/astronomy/groups_figs.tar.g